Crossroads
by DreadPirateRai
Summary: Follows Exceptional. Things have settled down and it's as ok as it's ever going to be. Some are more content than others and some will go to extreme lengths to do what they feel is right. When families divide things get messy. Life's not easy for a mutant


**A/N: Sorry if the writing style is a little erratic, I need to get myself a Beta I think. It's written differently to Exceptional, but it's essentially the next chapter in the story. I would also like to apologise for the wait but I've had some serious writers block, but I finally found the inspiration for this chapter, and half of the new chapter of Frailty. So enjoy, and honestly let me know what you think.**

Santana hasn't seen Quinn in quite some time, she tends to keep to herself and doesn't interact with anyone even Fin who's taken to hanging round with the dwarf because she can't even so much as a hello out of his girlfriend. In fact the only person who can get anything out of Quinn is Santana's own girlfriend Brittany, whom she's noticed are spending an increasing amount of time together and so maybe Santana's more than a little jealous and maybe she's figured out more than five ways to kill Quinn and get away with it.

Brittany is the one saving grace in this place and Santana suspects she's not the only one who thinks so. It's more than just keeping spirits up, Brittany's solely responsible for everything, because there's no food or water in the middle of a desert save for what Brittany can make, but it's taking its toll on Brittany, Santana's seen how tired she's become. So Santana spends every spare moment taking care of Brittany and the rest of it looking for a solution to their problem. The only problem is the world hasn't gotten any better and mutants are now openly prosecuted and destroyed, and Santana can't take the risk. But for now the others are happy here and for now they're safe and only Santana and Brittany know the truth, well Santana suspects that maybe Quinn knows too. Time is running out and Santana's need for independence and need to be the one to protect Brittany is going to get them all in to trouble. But Santana doesn't share too well, and she's scared that if Brittany didn't need looking after then she wouldn't need Santana.

They've been in hiding over two years when Brittany crashes. It's a normal day for Santana, waking up to Brittany's sleeping face only to fall back to sleep and wake up again to an empty bed and the shape of a head in the pillow. When she's finally awake she heads downstairs and Quinn is spending her quality time with Brittany doing who knows what and everybody else goes about their daily business, Quinn threatens Rachel no less that sixteen times to stay the hell away from Finn and Santana threatens her another twelve to stay away from her. Its dinner time when anybody really notices something's going on with Brittany, when as part of their Friday ritual they requested their favourite foods and Brittany complies. Santana was enjoying some sort of pasta combination when Brittany's head fell and her face submerged in steaming hot soup. Panicking Santana's body went rigid leaving Quinn to gently lift Brittany's head from the bowl and to check for any burns.

The next few days were sort of a blur for Santana as she never left the room where Brittany lay sleeping. Quinn hardly ever left either and the others came and went frequently, evidently concerned for their friend. Santana's getting desperate and because Brittany once confided in Santana that she loves sleeping beauty, she kisses Brittany in the hopes that true loves kiss will actually, it never does, but she always takes care to make sure Quinn 's not looking even though the psychic obviously knows what she's doing. Santana couldn't possibly know that Quinn's worried too, and she's more than happy to try anything, even stupid fairytales and maybe Quinn's tried kissing Brittany too. Brittany's been out of it for a week when everything stops, Quinn is the first one to notice it because she's never left Brittany's head, and the others realise it when everything stops and the rooms are plunged into dark. When Santana wakes up to a lifeless Brittany and a tearful Quinn she realises just how much they relied on Brittany.

It's been two days since Brittany's passing and things couldn't get any worse, there's no food, no electricity and everybody spends the day crying and generally just trying to survive. Mike and Finn have taken to disappearing for days on end to bring provisions, and Quinn's sat with Santana who's as lifeless as Brittany. She's ate nothing since, and her stomach feels like it's trying to digest itself but she's hoping that if she lays here long enough she might join Brittany, even if her power effectively makes it impossible. Quinn's noted once or twice how pathetic Santana's being, but Santana's positive Quinn has no idea what it feels like, even though Quinn's a telepath and has had to remind her of that more than once. She's stopped functioning and without her the others have no leader, with Rachel's attempt ending with the mother of all storm outs, in fact they've all tried except Quinn who tends to stay out of the way of everything.

Kurt is the one that takes action, fed up of the fighting and mood that's descended without Brittany, because he's missing her just as much as everybody else, except maybe Quinn and Santana. He takes a breath and before he can exhale the past few week's flashes in reverse and when he lets his breath go he's in the bath reading a paper dated over a month ago. He jumps out of the bath and heads straight for Santana. Santana surprisingly believes him, and Kurt's shocked because he realises that Santana's very aware of Brittany, and she actually knows what his power is. When he sees Brittany again he makes a point of giving her a big hug.

Kurt's not sure exactly how Santana managed it but when he's back in his own time things have changed dramatically. It disorients him at first because it's so different but sort of familiar at the same time, like it's the way it's always been and the way it was before felt like nothing more than a vague dream or a bad trip. He sort of feels disconnected, like he's not actually in control of his own body, like the soft pressure of his own hand on his arm that he couldn't actually feel. It's the drawback of his power, it's like exhaustion but not really and it's confusing for anyone who's never felt it. Kurt wonders if maybe that's how Brittany felt before she collapsed and before she died. Either way it worries Kurt just how powerful Brittany is.

It's three days later when he wakes up, and thankfully he's not on the floor or the couch but back in his own bed. He's not so thankful for the slamming of the door and the extremely perky blonde with a bright smile, or the way she bounds over to his bed in a way she hasn't for such a long time. Brittany drops down next to him and wraps herself around him in every possible way and even Kurt can't stop the blush that rises to his cheeks. Her face buries deep into his neck before she lightly blows against his skin causing an involuntary shiver to run down his spine, that's nothing to do with having a crush on her and everything to do with what it normally leads to.

Brittany's hands creep up his side in such a way that had they both been straight would defiantly have come off as inappropriate and gotten him killed. Still Kurt tries to move away, even if Brittany's vice like hold on him makes moving next to impossible. He thinks he's just about free when Brittany's fingers get to work, gently brushing his sides repeatedly and rapidly, which in turn caused him to snort and violently try to buck away while his hysterical laughter filed the room. It's the sign of change that he wanted to see, because he hasn't had a tickle war with Brittany in forever and he's really kind of missed it. Kurt tries to fight back, but Brittany's bigger and stronger than him and she had the foresight to lock him in one position, he can do nothing but sit back and admit defeat. For the first time in his life he's happy to concede.

A shadow falls on the doorway and the room falls into an uncomfortable silence, Kurt can't see who's in the doorway because Brittany's blocking his vision, but if he had to take bets he would have said Santana without a doubt. When Brittany loosens her grip and rolls of him and onto the floor Kurt's eyes find the intruder and he's a little surprised to see Quinn with her blonde hair pulled back into a tight ponytail and a tired smile on her face. All in all she looks like she hasn't slept in a while, and Kurt knows he could make her look that little bit more alert if she just let him give her a little makeover. Still he doesn't offer because there's a dangerous look in Quinn's eyes as she flicks her eyes to Brittany. Something doesn't feel right, Quinn's different and he can't quite put his finger on it. Something changed when Kurt changed the timeline, and when Brittany followed with a worried look on her face, Kurt knew that the change wasn't a good one.

Ever since Kurt gave her that warning Santana's been doing everything in her power to keep the burden off Brittany, and with so many people it's no easy task. Still, she's Santana Lopez and what she wants, she gets. It wasn't hard to get the others to fall in line, even without telling them what the future would be if things continued and to her surprise they had already split the tasks between them and Finn and Mike had already left on a supply run, and next week it would be her turn. Still she wasn't impressed with who was going to accompany her, because two days spent alone with Rachel was what she like to call hell. But in a way she was doing it for Brittany, and for Brittany she would spend a year alone with Rachel and she'd like it.

Her thoughts were interrupted by a series of kisses lightly ghosting up her neck and a slight tug at her ear. The noise that escaped her lips was a cross between a groan and a chuckle, and that in turn caused the offending source to fall back on the bed giggling. Santana rolled her eyes but couldn't help the smile that worked its way to her lips as she took in the tall, healthy looking frame of Brittany, who wore just a few too many layers of clothes for her liking. Leaning forward Santana made to pull Brittany's t-shirt over her head but the squirming blonde refused to make it easy for her. Pulling herself over Brittany, with a thigh on either side of the blonde's hips and her hands exerting pressure on Brittany's shoulders she leant down to steal a kiss, while working the t-shirt to pool up under Brittany's chin.

Breaking the kiss for a fraction of a second allowed Santana to pull Brittany's shirt over her head before discarding it on the floor with a satisfied smirk and a husky "I won." Brittany smiled and shook her head gently before her hands wrapped around Santana's back and she flipped them over with practiced ease. "Wrong San. I win." Santana remained confused until she felt Brittany's hands trail patterns against her bare skin and realised that whatever clothes she had been wearing had long since disappeared. Brittany hadn't even left behind a scrap of material. Still when Brittany's lips found the skin of her stomach she couldn't find it within herself to care.

Reaching out blindly in her sleep Santana was a little dismayed to find she could find no trace of the blonde on her side of the bed, until she tried to lie on her back and a small squeak of surprise shot out from under her. Her eyes searched the darkness until she found the sheepish figure of Brittany climbing back into the wrong side of the bed. Gathering Brittany in her arms, Santana found herself draping a leg over Brittany's stomach as she tried to merge herself with the blonde. Pretty soon she found herself drifting back off to sleep with Brittany's soothing voice whispering into her ear about fighting and wondering why everybody couldn't get along.

When she woke up the second time sunlight filled the room and Santana, much to Santana's dismay. She tried to get back to sleep, but the lack of Brittany in bed with her and the inhumane brightness so early in the morning was making it damn near impossible. Her damn girlfriend was an evil genius and it had her smiling before she was even properly awake. When her eyes did finally open, they opened to a smiling Brittany, sitting cross legged at the bottom of the bed wearing absolutely nothing and bathed in an ethereal light. It was the most beautiful thing Santana could ever claim to have seen, and as she crawled slowly into Brittany's embrace she felt such a rush of love that she felt the overwhelming need to share it with her.

After a long shower and an even longer attempt at getting dressed they managed to leave the sanctity of their room and into the smug comments of everybody else and the disgusted if slightly longing face of Quinn. Still nothing could dampen her mood, not even Quinn stealing Brittany away for the rest of the day or Rachel wanting to wax poetic about being in love. Until later that night when it did actually dawn on Santana that Brittany had spent an unholy amount of time with Quinn and nobody had an idea why.

It bothered Santana more than it should that she felt the need to seek the two of them out, because while Santana knew that Brittany loved her,, she didn't really know and there was this ugly feeling that had managed to convince her that Quinn was a threat to her relationship. Still the seeking didn't go as planned when she bumped into Kurt doing almost the exact same thing, but through a door and not directly like Santana had planned.

A sharp smack and Santana's patented glare let Kurt know that he had been caught, not that it surprised him in the least, and he never was good at sneaking around. Still he needed to keep an eye on Quinn, if only to look out for Brittany who he had become quite close to. So he trailed them rather successfully for an entire afternoon, but had yet to find anything other than one friend comforting another. As he relayed every conversation to Santana he realised he had found a sort of ally who was just as keen to find out what was going on as he was.

They sat in relative silence as they pressed themselves up against the door, occasionally trying to steal a glance through the unexplainable and numerous cracks in the door. Still they heard nothing out of the ordinary, just Quinn voicing her many fears and Brittany assuaging them the best she could and occasionally they would both lapse into extended, if slightly boring silences. Eventually the two of them had to give up and admit that Quinn might be more troubled than they originally thought and Brittany spending a lot of time helping her was more than a little understandable because apart from Finn, Brittany was Quinn's only real connection.

They part ways at the bottom of the corridor, and Kurt is surprised when Santana pulls him in for an honest to god hug, and a begrudging offer of friendship that Kurt knew was more genuine than Santana wants him to believe.

The day draws on and Santana sees brief flashes of both Quinn and Brittany, but strangely never together. So when Quinn settles into the sofa across from Santana she's rather surprised when Brittany's arms wrap around her from the back and kisses are placed sloppily on the top of her head. When Brittany leans down and blows softly in her ear Santana's positive she just imagined Brittany whisper "I love you." When Santana doesn't answer back Brittany lets her grip on Santana go and exits the room dejectedly leaving a confused Santana and a glaring Quinn.

"When somebody you love tells you that they love you, you're supposed to answer back" Quinn's voice breaks the silence before her eyes narrow in a glare. "Unless you don't love her back." Santana for her part is sort of panicking because it was said so softly she thought she's imagined it, and a smile that Quinn would most defiantly call goofy or sickening found home on her face, even despite the fact that Brittany had most obviously taken her sign as a rejection. Quinn's face softens into a genuine smile as Santana leaps out of her chair in pursuit of Brittany.

Santana finds Brittany outside, her eyes unfocused as she stared into the distance, a flat brown desolate land of absolutely nothing. It reminds Santana for a moment just exactly what their lives are now, because for a while she almost forgot, the all forgot. Then her eyes fall on Brittany and she knows she's never been this happy and this life they have, it's pretty damn great. She drops to the floor next to Brittany, and for once she's at a loss for what to say. She knows what she want's to say, she just doesn't know how to say it in a way that would really mean something. So she goes for the short effective version, actually she just copies Brittany by whispering 'I love you' lightly in her ear. Everything else seems forgotten as Brittany's face breaks out into that familiar grin that Santana's sure has never been brighter and she launches herself into Santana's arms.

They've been laid outside in the dirt for a good few hours and Santana is more than a little content, but that changes when Brittany's eyes become sort of unfocused and she lets out a sharp gasp. When she jumps to her feet, her eyes are back but focused on something in the distance. Santana can't see anything until a few moments later when she sees them, there more black blurs on the horizon, but they are defiantly there. She's not sure what's going on, or what to do but Quinn's presence makes itself known when she's flanked by the rest of their rag tag bunch of misfits.

When Quinn tells everybody its Finn, Mike and quite a few unwelcome guests a state of panic breaks out and nobody knows what to do, until Santana takes the lead once more. Santana knows they have a matter of minutes before the guests arrive and there's not a great deal of time to plan any sort of escape and the only plan she can think of is to fight. She's about to voice that plan when she sees the worried look on Brittany's face, and it breaks her heart because Brittany knows her plan is the only way out. The threat of violence has tears in Brittany's eyes, and as Santana studies her girlfriend she knows that fighting isn't an option, she has to think of a way around it.

The group stand by on Santana's orders while Puck and Mercedes take point. Mercedes glares off at the now visible outlines of quite a few black escalades and Puck is stretching his muscles at Lauren, who's trying to look like she's not paying attention. A look of disappointment crosses his features as he takes a calming breath, "watch this babe" are his last words as he closes his eyes and two very tired, very disgruntled looking boys flew towards him and knocking him straight off his feet. Lauren doesn't even have time to laugh before Rachel lets out a piercing screech and a huge wall of dirt and sand covered everything and the ground started to shake and crack in huge craters underneath the army of vehicles.

With the sand pelting the group every which way and the ringing sound in everybody's ears the muffled whirring of a chopper can be heard overhead and you can hear the shouts and the barks of the men climbing out of the totalled cars. Santana's pulling Finn off the floor as quickly as she can barking orders at him that has him grabbing Artie from his wheelchair and taking to the sky's in search of the chopper. There all waiting with baited breath for the two boys to return when a crash and a flash of fire signal the destruction of the chopper and a second crash meant that Santana's estimates were all wrong.

There are six crashes in total before the two boys return and Artie is placed carefully in his wheelchair, they both look a little worse for the wear, but there alive and Santana knows that's all that matters. Brittany looks a little sick, until Finn's steady hand on her shoulder and Arties strained voice admit there were no people on the choppers when they crashed, Finn saved them all. Santana can't see the smile on her face, but she knows it's there as Brittany steps forward, the sand parting around her as she walks through it.

The sand gathers together rather quickly and it's rather obvious that Brittany's the one doing it, but nobody can figure out why. It becomes obvious when Brittany gestures with her hand and the sand organises itself into a wall in constant motion, a highly dangerous wall that could probably do major damage to anything in its way. Fortunately nothing got in its way, and those who were pursuing Finn and Mike were thankfully not stupid enough to try.

The group make to move out, but the barricade of silver cars put to rest any hopes of escape. The group are tired, dirty and feeling hopeless, Brittany even lets the wall disappear as if it never existed, but Santana is still poised to fight and the others naturally follow her lead. The door to one of the cars opens and a familiar figure steps out with a smile on his face and a petit redhead on his arm. It's somebody none of them ever thought they would see again, never wanted to see again, but right now they were thankful for his presence.

Will Schuester was a haunted man, ever since that day his entire glee club just up and left and he had to deal with the fallout. They were good kids, misunderstood but great and having these abilities didn't change that, he just had to make everybody else see. Emma was really his only ally, not even Coach Sylvester wanted to fight in the mutant's favour once she heard what had happened to Karofsky senior. But Will, he wasn't going to give up on his kids, and even though his campaign was ridiculed and he became a target, he fought for those rights, nothing was going to stop him. Spending a few months in prison was the turning point for him, the government wouldn't listen, the people wouldn't listen but he could keep them safe, out of harm's way. That's why he set up the exclusive Schuester Institute for the artistically gifted. It wasn't easy and all of his and Emma's savings went into the cause, which still looked to be a lost cause until an anonymous and unexpected donation gave them more than enough funds, they just had to find the students.

The first few recruits were specially chosen for their talents, so he could keep the school under the radar and relatively safe. Between the small group and his now extensive collection of X-Men comics, Will finally felt safe enough to find the one group who he had done all of this for. It started off as a next to impossible job, and he looked for months before he finally managed to find a breakthrough, the very same breakthrough that the government took advantage of. Still they didn't know his kids like he did and his brilliant plan had worked, they were all safe and contemplating his offer of a different kind of sanctuary and a chance to be normal again.

The group trade glances between each other but Santana knows that there waiting for her to make the decision, she's their leader, she's kept them alive. She can see it in their faces, they want this, some of them rather badly, but there's always that question of can they be trusted. Santana's about to answer when Quinn shouts no, and it's then everybody's resolve crumbles, Santana's included. Quinn is adamant that they can't blend in, they will never be normal because the humans won't let them. If anybody is troubled by Quinn's use of the term humans, they don't show it and for that Santana is proud of them. Then Quinn goes into detail about how war was the only option, they needed to fight and win and it exactly what Santana's thinking. Now there are two choices and she knows which one she'd rather choose. On one side there's Mr Schue and Miss Pilsbury offering a safe haven and a chance to blend in and on the other side there's Quinn, who wants to destroy the humans and earn freedom for the mutants. Santana takes time to consider Brittany, who is looking sort of tortured, like she cares for Quinn and is genuinely scared of what this decision could mean for their little group before stepping over to Mr Schue, because a war would destroy them all. Brittany's had a profound effect on her and for Brittany she wants to stop the fighting, for Brittany she wants's peace. It doesn't take long for the others to follow Santana, because all they've wanted from the beginning is to blend in and be as normal as possible, but Brittany and Finn stay rooted to the spot, unwilling to move to one side or the other.

Santana sort of expected something like this, because Finn loves Quinn and it's no secret he also loves Rachel and Brittany loves Santana, but she also loves Quinn and Brittany wants nothing more than for everybody to get on. Surprising only to Rachel, Finn takes Quinn's hand reluctantly because he loves Quinn a hell of a lot more than Berry, and Santana takes a great deal of delight at the hurt look on the hobbits features. It leaves only Brittany to make her decision and the anticipation is making Santana's heart beat fast and she can't figure out why, because even thought the two blondes have a profound connection, what Santana and Brittany share is nothing less than perfection and pretty much everything to the both of them, also Brittany is a pacifist, she doesn't like fighting. Santana's heart breaks in two when Quinn extends her hand and Brittany takes it.


End file.
